Issue to vent about

I am very disturbed by the fact that the only piece of info I learned on seeing my homepage this morning was that Jamie Lynn Spears was pregnant. I have access to CNN and several other sites on my homepage, and this was the headline for all of them. If you don't know who she is, she is Britney Spear's 16 year old sister. She is also a star on the Disney channel. First of all, this is not something I think the media should be spreading all over. This person is supposed to be a role model for children everywhere who watch her show. Granted most of them identify with her character, not her, but I would not want any child of mine who may idolize her to see in an article going through the grocery store that she is pregnant! (my kids are 2 and under, so they obviously don't know who she is!) Teen pregnancy is not something I want my children thinking is acceptable. Not only does it alter the teens lives, but think of the poor child they bring into the world. I can't imagine having the stability needed to raise my kids in the best possible way when I was sixteen. Then factor in the drama that looms over the Spears family and you are asking for trouble.

The headline under that one was that Lynn Spear's parenting book was suspended for the time being! A parenting book.... come on! Enough said on that one!

Sorry about the rant, I am just bothered by what our media is choosing to display on their headlines!

Oh Yeah!

I forgot to say that yesterday was the best day ever! We had the best time celebrating Christmas with my mom and Priscilla! Usually everyone is in such a hurry to go do something else, that we are never able to enjoy one another. My parents stayed for several hours and the kids loved all of their gifts! Turner got a new big boy bed (it is a car one too!). It is so weird that my baby boy is now sleeping in a bed and not a crib! It has been such a huge milestone for us! He is getting so big too fast!

Reese got a big kitchen set! It is the huge deluxe one that step 2 sells! Both her and Turner love it! They love "cooking" for mommy and daddy!

Turner also got a tool bench! He loves it and has played with it ever since we put it together!

It was the best holiday ever! And to think it has just started!

Fun day

We had a fun day with Mommy's group coming over to have a little bit of a holiday celebration. Kathryn brought some crafts for the kids, which they did after they all left. My kids loved the stickers! It is so fun to have kids around for the holidays. They are so excited about the littlest things, which is contagious to the people around!

I was feeling okay, and then this evening I started to feel crummy again! I hope this is just a little cold! I hate being sick around the holidays!

There is only 4 days until Ryan is on vacation for 11 days! YAY! We are so excited! I don't know what we are going to be doing, but just being together and regrouping before starting a new year is going to be awesome! I love my husband and family so much!

Fun of December

Today my parents are coming over to celebrate Christmas with us since they are going to NY to see Priscilla's parents on the actual day! We are excited. I think this is the first time that my parents are coming over to celebrate a large chunk of time at our house. I am looking forward to it and I think the kids are going to love what Grandma's got them for Christmas!

I am trying to get over a cold. It has not been to bad, but I hate being sick at the Holidays! I hope that my kids don't get it too! It would stink to have sick kids at Christmas too.

We had put up our Christmas tree last weekend when my friend Rachel was here. It was a lot of fun, listening to Christmas music and hanging out while putting our HUGE tree up. I think that it is as wide as it is tall. It made it two days before we woke up and found it had fallen over because the stand was not substantial enough to hold it up. After a panicked call to our amazing next door neighbors, and shipping the kids over there so we could clean up all the glass, we realized that we only lost one special ornament to us, so all in all it could have been a lot worse. Our neighbor Dave came over and helped Ryan put the tree in a new stand and we attached the top of the tree to the ceiling! The tree is now bare again and we have to figure out a time to redecorate it! I will have to post a photo when we get is all back together! The tree is seriously taking over 1/4 of our living room! Next year I think we are going to have to aim at getting a little smaller tree!

Last weekend we also went ad celebrated Alison and Delaney's second birthday! It was a lot of fun, and my kids love Haley and Carl and the girls! Then we met up with them on Friday at Kenilworth on the girls actual birthday and we had lunch with them, Wendy, Marge and baby Ryan! Turner loved the trains there, and I think Ryan and I are going to take him back again before Christmas so he can see them again!

My sister and Bryan moved into there new town house in PA yesterday! We are very excited for them and we cannot wait to get up there to see it!

We have a busy couple weeks coming up! We hope that everyone has a great holiday and I will try to post photos along the way!

Reese is 1!!! ... and the past few weeks!

The past few weeks have been a complete whirl wind. We went to Rehoboth Beach, DE for Thanksgiving. My grandparents live there and we had a really good time. We left home around 5pm on Wednesday and we got back a little after 8pm on Friday. My sister and brother in law road down and back with us and we had a really good car trip. My mother and Priscilla met us down there. We enjoyed a really yummy Thanksgiving dinner, some fun Wii play and we took Reese to the beach for the very first time. She loved it and since the weather was so warm we were able to stay out for about an hour and let the kids run around and enjoy themselves. I cannot wait until next summer. The kids are going to have the best time at the beach!

Reese's 1st time on the beach!

"Mom, Put the camera away!

On Friday my sister and I got up early and were at the outlets at 8am for some good Black Friday shopping. We got a ton of stuff and the outlets were not really that crowded. We asked about it because we were shocked when the parking lot had a ton of spaces. Apparently the outlets open at midnight on Black Friday and stay open until 2 or 3am. So I guess all the really crazy people are out then!

When we got home we spent the weekend finishing up most of our Christmas shopping for the kids. We also decorated the outside of our home! We did it with wreathes on the windows and garland and white lights on the railings. We love the way it looks. I will take pictures soon and post them!

We then spent the rest of the week preparing for Reese's first birthday party, which was supposed to be on the 1st of December. On Wednesday night, Reese had a fever which carried over into the next morning. We took her temperature and it was 103.4 degrees F. We took her to the pediatrician and decided to cancel her party due to the fact we thought she could still be sick on Saturday. We are going to celebrate with Ryan's family around Christmas and we are going to have a party for the Reese and her friends sometime in January!

Ryan took off today and Reese is officially one! We are so excited and happy that our little angel is flourishing and becoming such a cute little girl! She even took her first steps today! We are so in love with this little girl!

We met up with Haley and the girls today and went to see Santa, do a little shopping and get lunch. Santa was a bit traumatic for all the kids, as you can see in the photo! We then had a fun time shopping and the kids especially liked Friendly's and the ice cream! My kids love the girls and it was fun getting to hang out with Haley!

Santa Photo 2007

Tonight we are going to go up and see Ryan's parents for Reese's birthday dinner! We already celebrated at the beach over Thanksgiving with my family! She will only eat cake off a spoon as you can see!
Reese's 1st cupcake!

Not wanting to get messy!

Satisfied with her mess!

Fun Weekend

This past weekend we left the kids with Ryan's parents and we headed to West Chester to have an early Thanksgiving dinner with Rachel, Matt, Amie and EJ. We got there and had a great dinner with pumpkin soup, turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a ton of other food! We drank 5 bottles of wine and some pumpkin ale! We then played games and EJ and Rach serenaded us with some music! We enjoyed spending time with our good friends, and we look forward to doing it again soon!

The best part is that the kids were great with Ryan's parents! Turner is always good for them, but he passed a big milestone by sleeping in a big boy bed! Reese was great and enjoyed spending time with her grammy and pop! It is so exciting that she loves her grandparents, and we look forward to having time with my parents and grandparents this week!

On a sad note, my grandparents had to put down one of my cats from childhood today. It still has not hit me quite yet, but I am sure it is going to when we don't see her on Thanksgiving. It is hard because this is the first pet still in my life that we have lost. I am happy that she did not suffer though!

Relationships

Tonight I turned on the movie "Because I Said So" with Diane Keaton, Lauren Graham, Mandy Moore and several other of my favorite actors. It is a favorite of mine and I have seen it several times. I really enjoy the movie because of the humor and because it deals with the ultimate challenge in anyones life: relationships. We all have several relationship, whether it be with significant others, parents, friends, and especially our children. For those of you that do not have kids, bear with me for a little bit, and for those of you that do I am sure you are going to be able to relate to what I am going to rant about for a minute. I look at the relationships I have with each of my kids and it terrifies me. How am I going to get through the next 18+ years, how are my children going to be as adults, where are Ryan and I going to be each passing year, etc.... I don't want to hover over my children, but I want to guide them. I want them to be independent, but want to come home to us too. I know that Ryan and I are going to have a solid relationship even after our children are gone, and we are adults that choose to be with one another. When your children grow up they leave, which is a good and bad thing. I see how my husband does not have the attachment to his family that I feel for both of our families. He could go months without seeing his parents and weeks without talking to them and he would be okay. I talk to both sets on a daily basis because that was how I was raised. Will my children want to have a relationship with us when they leave the nest or is it going to be forced. Will my sweet little boy leave and never look back until his future spouse forces him to. Will my daughter want to talk with me about her problems or will she pretend I don't exist. I know we all have these questions, it is just so perplexing to me to think about my children as adults and will I be enough of a mom to them that they will be secure to be individuals, but sensitive enough to want to be part of the bigger family picture. I guess only time will tell!

Past few weeks

I know it has been forever since the last time I posted. We have been really busy with some with big things like my in laws 30th wedding anniversary, but mostly with little things that just add up and take so much time and energy.

The weekend of October 20th we threw Ryan's parents a surprise party to celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary! It was a lot of fun. We invited a lot of friends and family and Linda and Vince were completely surprised. To be ready for the event, we had to get most of our home in order. So we completed Reese's room and the living room and hung pictures all over the house. It is beginning to look really good and it is feeling like home.Surprise!

Reese hanging out with her 2nd cousin Drew

The week after the party Turner was sick. If you have kids you know how fun it is to have a sick 2 year old. Then Reese ate something Turner gave her that she was not supposed to so I had to call poison control ( she is fine!). By the end of the week I had the pinched nerve in my neck and could barely move. The neck problem is still there but slowly getting a little better.Reese petting Tayer

Turner learning to ride his tricycle.

Hey Mom, I'm backwards!

Turner being cute!

Our house in the fall!

Last week was a lot of fun. On the 30th, Ryan and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary of being together. We usually celebrate this one more than we celebrate our wedding anniversary because: 1. Turner was born 4 days before our first wedding anniversary and that overshadows it, and 2. We have been in a committed relationship for the past 8 years, and even before we said our vows we were committed to one another for life! It is hard to believe that it has been 8 years!


Then Halloween was the next day and it was soooo much fun. I took the kids to see all their grandparents over a couple days. Then we had a neighborhood party to go to that we have heard about since we first moved into the neighborhood. After the party all the neighbors sit out front drinking and giving out candy. The neighbor that has the party even gives out beer to the parents of the trick or treaters. We were out front until after 10 drinking and have fun with our next door neighbors, Marge and Dave. We always have a good time when we hang out with them.

For Halloween, Turner was a baseball bat and Reese was a Ty Beanie baby- a guinea pig. When we decided to make Reese a beanie baby I had look up her name for the ones Ty already made and it turned out that it is a guinea pig. Ryan almost died when I told him! My grandmother made the costume and I made the tag for it. As you can see it was sooo cute! Their friends, the Klein twins, were thing 1 and thing 2! They were also really cute!

Cute Baseball Bat!

Again!

Reese's First Halloween!

Turner and the girls!

My guinea pig!

One out of four isn't bad!

Reese has also had fun getting to know the new little boy in the neighborhood. Marge and Dave adopted a little boy from Korea and he arrived early in September. They named him Ryan, and he is sooo adorable. Apparently Reese thinks so too!

Reese and Ryan!

"Uh Mom, I'm not a horse!"

"But I love him!"

Hugs!

Sorry it has taken so long to update! I will try to post more often:)

More to come

We have been so busy the past couple weeks, and now I have what we think is a pinched nerve in my neck! We have a lot to update on, so look for it coming up soon!

Good Weekend

We had a good and busy weekend doing getting nothing accomplished that we wanted to get done... oh well! On Friday night we had to do our typical errands of running to the bank and grocery store. I don't really enjoy doing these things by myself, but I love being with my family and that makes all errands better. Then Ryan and I came home and we watched the new Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. We just joined the blockbuster through the mail thing and we get 2 movies at a time and we can exchange them unlimitedly at the store. It is fun to constantly have movies and we are always surprised by what they send us. We have the Pursuit of Happiness, which we will probably watch tonight after the kids go to bed.

Saturday we hung around the house and talked about painting our room. It is the last one that needs to be painted. To be honest, neither of us had the energy. So we had a pj morning as a family and then when the kids napped Ryan and I played Wii. He creamed me. After the kids napped we went to Ryan's parents house to celebrate his aunts 50th birthday all dressed in our Penn State gear. Here is a pic of us!




Here is one of Ryan and I too!

And here are some of Reese crawling around!

Turner and Pop!


Reese and Daddy!


Reese and I!



Reese and Pop!


The Boys!


Turner was more into running around and getting into stuff then having pictures taken.

Today we wend to a farm up the road called Weber's with the Klein family and our neighbors, the Watchorn's. We had such a good time doing all kinds of fall things like looking at animals and playing in the hay and of course getting some pumpkins! I will post pics of that when I get some from the smart family's who went with us and who remembered their cameras! I hope everyone had as good of a weekend as we did!

Heroes and such

My sister and brother in law come over every Tuesday to watch Heroes with us. Ryan and I tivo it every week and we wait to watch it until Tuesday night with them. We started it this year and it is so much fun! We all love the show, as do our next door neighbors, and we all bounce theories off one another. If you have not seen the show I highly recommend it! Christina and Bryan are in the process of buying a house and when they do we will alternate our Tuesday nights between the two homes. I am really enjoying seeing my sister and he hubby a lot. We all have such a good time together no matter what we do!

This is a short post because I have all four kiddos sleeping, and I anticipate that they are going to be up again soon!

First Words

Reese has been saying "MaMa" and "DaDa" for a while now and it is really cute. Yesterday for the first time Reese said her first word other than those. Her first official word is "Bye" and appropriately she said it to Grammy trying to get her to go away. If anyone knows my daughter, you know that she is a HUGE momma's girl! She does not like anyone really besides her daddy, Turner and I, but she really does not like her grandparents and we think that is because if Ryan and I ever leave the kids with anyone, it is the grandparents. So as sad as it is that Grammy is not liked by Reese, it is a completely normal reaction for her age and I know that she is going to get over it. So as we wait for her to begin to branch out from Mom and Dad we are going to celebrate her big milestone's! Yay, she is beginning to talk and I absolutely love getting to know my kids more and more everyday. So in the words of my Reese.... "Bye".

10 months and more

Today I have the twins all day and I had Jeffrey this morning. The girls, being Reese, Alison and Delaney, are sooooooo GOOD! They all play so well together and Alison and Delaney show Reese new things and they are gentle with her. Jeffrey and Turner were soooooo BAD. They spent time alternating in time out all morning for being really rough and not listening at all. The problem with the boys is that they feed off of one another. It is not really their fault because they are two, but there are days that I am ready to pull my hair out! Thank God for nap time!

Reese is 10 months old as of yesterday. The time is flying by. I cannot believe that in 2 months my little angel girl is going to be a year old. She is totally a mommy's girl and absolutely the light of my life sometimes. She is so sweet and I can't get enough of her. I hope that 20 years from now we have a good relationship too.

Well, I am off to get some lunch while all 4 of the kiddos are napping!

Accomplishing Stuff

This weekend we actually accomplished a lot of stuff. On Friday, Ryan and I finally primed and put the first coat of paint on the walls that were orange in our living room. Our new color is called "wine tasting" and is a dark merlot color. I am in love with it, except after getting 4 coats of paint on the wall plus the primer it is still striped on the big wall. We are hoping that when we put up all the pictures no one will notice. Other than that I am in love with my living room. All that is left is a little touch up and we can call it done. A very big Thank You to my best childhood friend, Suzanne, for coming up and helping paint on Saturday! It was great chatting all day and getting some things done!

While Sue was here on Saturday we also primed all the dark trim in the room that Ryan and I are in. It is actually going to be Reese's room soon. (to make a long story short, the previous owners allowed there 7 year old daughter to have the master bedroom and they put huge murals on the walls, and Ryan and I did not want to deal with it until now.) Then on Monday while the kids were napping, my sister and I painted all the walls in the room. Some of the walls are a pink color called "My fair lady" and the others are a light green called "honeydew". It looks soooo cute! Ryan painted the ceiling white and all that is left is the trim! I will post pics once we get all the rooms finished (we are going to be painting the master a golden color with white trim!) and put the furniture in the right rooms and not all over the house! (our dresser is in the hall upstairs!)

We are doing all this while Reese is really sick. She is having a ton of allergy problems and this morning she woke up with one of her eyes looking like she got punched. Her right eye is really swollen and purple. I took her to the pediatrician today and she is going to live, but mom and dad are stressed because of the allergies and the always worrying about our Angel Reese. She is really congested and has been for about a week, and so we are going to go to another allergy medication, and we are going to have to treat the eye with some medication. He also thinks she has a virus that is related to the RSV virus- Great... just what we need. It takes 2 weeks to completely go away. When asked if it was contagious, he said she would have already spread it around by now. I guess it is a good thing Ryan and I have been a little more obsessed with cleaning. I feel so bad for my kids when they are sick, especially Reesie because she is sooooo miserable. We are hoping she feels a lot better soon. (Thank you Ky for putting up with my terror this morning!)

Other news is Turner had a good time spending the entire weekend with Grammy and Pop while we painted. He came back with some trucks that he is very possessive about now. We shall see how it goes with Jeffrey tomorrow. Monday he lost all of them because he could not share. However they may be distracted because our mattress is in the middle of the floor because we have been sleeping in the living room! We shall see!

We are surviving!

So we have survived yet again another week of Ryan in grad school. Tuesday and Wednesday Ryan is gone all day and only sees the kids for maybe 5 minutes if he makes it home before they go to bed. Now it has gotten so that Turner is waking up on Thursday morning begging for Daddy. I know this is a good thing because it shows how much he loves Ryan and misses him, but it still breaks my heart. I tell him that Daddy is working and at school, but as a two year old his concept of this is not too great. I can't wait until next winter when he is done, and then our lives can resume to being normal (okay.... maybe start to be normal... hehe).

Today I went out and bought a ton of paint and such so that hopefully this weekend Ryan and I can get a lot of house things done! Wish us luck!

Boys vs. Girls

I have decided there is a HUGE difference between boys and girls! My son is a two year old american gladiator in training with the little boy, Jeffrey from across the street. They wrestle all morning if I let them, which is not the case. They will start with running around my living room in circles and then Jeffrey takes Turner out. And basically they continue to go from there. Part of me laughs at it because it is really funny, yet another part of me thinks I need to teach Turner to be crazy in certain situations and not others. I think that this is the eternal struggle with all mothers of boys- trying to rein them in!

And then there is my girl and the twins. So cute all three of them. They all will stare blankly at the boys and then look at me like, "Where in the world did these guys come from?" Then they will continue to play nicely with one another. Reese loves it because the girls are gentle with her, and I love it because she has other kids to look up to other then Turner. I'm not saying that I don't want my girl to be tough and capable, BUT I really do want to have a little girl too, and too much Turner time may corrupt her:-).

Well I am off to get some rest so that tomorrow I will be ready for both my boy and girl (and mommy's group!).

Amazing Weekend

Our family had an amazing weekend, and we did nothing! We just spent the entire thing as a family and enjoyed one another. On Saturday we did go to Babie-r-us and bought some more child proofing gadgets. Now Turner can not throw all of his clothing and socks all over the floor when he is in his "rest area". The 1,2,3, Magic is really working and it has only been 5 days! Turner has realized that he is not really in charge and he is beginning to HATE going into his room. So he has started to realize that if he stops after "thats 1" he can still play and have fun! It is making all of our lives more peaceful and I am not feeling stressed with him all the time! YAY!

The other thing that we did invest in this weekend was Wii! Ryan and I then changed into "big kids" and we have become completely addicted to it! We played "Big Brain Academy", "Mario Party 8", all the Wii sports! I am not a huge video game fan, but it is sooooo much fun!! SO if people don't hear from us for more than a couple days at a time, you might need to send in a search party!

Terrible No's

So my friend Tracey had someone tell her the other day that the terrible two's should actually be called the terrible no's, and I completely agree with her. Turner used to be so cute and sweet and now he is a complete terror 80-90% of the time. Some of it is really bad, like hitting and spitting (the worst!!) and doing everything he knows that he is not supposed to do. We are doing time out and he thinks it is a joke... AHHHHHH sooo frustrating. I finally asked the pediatrician for some advice at Reese's 9 month visit last week and he recommended a book called "1,2,3 Magic" . We will be getting this book, and I will let you all know how it is!

I have to admit though, that even though he is a living terror most of the time. Occasionally all we can do is laugh about it. Like last night we had dinner with the neighbors because Ryan was in class and it was so nice out. The dogs were out back yesterday and so I had put the water dish out for them during the day and forgot to pick it up. I was letting Turner play out back where i could see him and it looked like he was playing with cars while I was finishing up the dishes. When I went outside, I soon realized that I had left the box of rice cereal on the ledge in the back and he got it and was making a paste out of the dogs water and cereal. He had it all around his mouth... yuck.. and it is all over the back wall of the house! While I was telling him no and we don't play with that, blah blah blah, I was out there with my camera. It was sooo funny and I realized that all I could do was laugh about it!

Then this morning after I changed his diaper I put the vaseline that we use instead of balmex on the bookshelf and went to wash my hands. I hear this giggling as I walk back in the room and Turner is sitting with the vaseline in his hands, next to the dog who is coated in it! The dog of course is looking up at me like, "yay, Turner is being nice and petting me!". Once again, I had to step back and all I could do is laugh while telling him no!

We are well into our way of being a terrible two, but at least I have a sense of humor about it! If I didn't I don't know that I would survive it!

I forgot to mention earlier that I am so proud of all the men and women who lost their lives 6 years ago today. I am also so grateful for all the men and women who are risking their lives in our military to protect our country. They will all be in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you sooo much to all the true heros in this world. We all take it for granted, but know that we will keep you in our hearts! Thank you for trying to make this world a better place for my children to be in!

Organizing

I am feeling the need for our family to begin organizing our lives a little more. I think that we need to spend a little more time and effort in making our home a place that we want it to be. So last night I went to Walmart and bought a ton more cleaning supplies so that we can start with the basics. I made Ryan sit down and come up with a "chore chart" for us. We have done this several times in the past, but I am determined to make this work this time! It is not like we live in a pigs pen, but I feel that if we do a little each day and make it more of a routine, then the days of big cleanings will be less stressful!

This fall we are going to be doing a lot of changing in the look of the inside of our home. We are going to be painting a lot of the rooms and we are going to be tearing up the carpet in what is Reese's room now. The previous owners put their daughter in the Master bedroom and they were in the next largest one. At first we just left it that way because they put huge murals on the walls of the girls room which is really cute. Looking at the rooms we thought the size difference was not that big, but after we got all the furniture in the rooms we realized that we really do need the bigger room. That, and we are the parents!! I am so excited about all the changes because we are going to be making our beautiful home more ours!

We even have Turner learning to pick up his toys and such after he is done with them. He thinks it is a game still and it is nice to see him participate in the family!

I will post some pictures when we get the projects done! (I know that this post is not that exciting, but I promise future ones will be better!)